A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

338 PHOCAS. PHOCAS.
I'HLIAS (,AiAas), a son of Dionysus and started for the theatre of the war with a motley
Chthonophyle, also called- Phlius, was a native of army composed of the most incongruous elements.
Araithyrea in'Argolis, and is mentioned as one of He thus encountered the Persian veterans corithe Argonauts. (Apollon. Rhod. i. 115, with the manded by their king Chosroes, the greatest man
Schol.; Paus. ii. 12. ~ 6; Val. Flacc. i. 411.) of the East. At Dara the eunuch was utterly
According to Pausanias, he was a son of Ceisus defeated. His successor Domentiolus, the emand Araithyrea, and the husband of Chthonophyle, peror's brother, was not able to stop the progress
by whom he became the father of Androdamas; of the enemy, and from the Black Sea to the coiland Hyginus (Fab. 14) calls him Phliasus, and a fines of Egypt the Persians ravaged the country.
son of Dionysus and Ariadne. The town of Phlius During this time Domentiolus entered into nego(formerly called Araithyrea) was believed to have tiations with Narses with a view of reconciling
derived its name from him. (Steph. Byz. s.v. him with the emperor. Beguiled by the brilliant
IXsoise.) [L. S.] promises of Domentiolus, Narses imprudently left
PHOBUS (4oI'os), Latin Metus, the personi- his stronghold, and finally proceeded to Confication of fear, is described as a son of Ares and stantinople. While he hoped to be placed again
Cythereia, a brother of Deimos, and is one of the at the head of the Roman armies, he was suddenly
ordinary companions of Ares. (Hom. II. xi. 37, arrested, and without further inquiries condemned
xiii. 299, xv. 119; Hes. T/zeog. 934.) Phobus to death. He was burnt alive. Thus perished
was represented on the shield of Agamemnon, on the worthy namesake of the great Narses, with
the chest of Cypselus, with the head of a lion. whom he has often been confounded, although the
(Paus. v. 19. ~ 1.) [L. S.] one was a centenarian when the other first tried
PIIOCAS (,Pwrlas), emperor of Constantinople his sword against the Persians. This Narses was
from A. D. 602 to 610. The circumstances under so much feared by the Persians that mothers used
which this monster was raised to the throne are to frighten their children with his name. HIis
related at the end of the life of the emperor MAU- murder increased the unpopularity of the emperor.
RICIUS. Phocas was of base extraction, and a Germanus, the father-in-law of the unfortunate
native of Cappadocia. For some time he was Theodosius, the eldest son of Mauricius, who had
groom to the celebrated general Priscus, and at the once had a chance of obtaining the crown, now
time of his accession lie held the humble office of a persuaded the captive empress Constantina to
centurion. His brutal courage had gained him a form a plot against the life of the tyrant. She
name among the common soldiers, and among consented, being under the impression that her
those of his companions who liked warfare as the son Theodosius was still alive, and accompanied
art of butchering mankind. His coronation took by one Scholasticus, who seems to have been the
place on the 23d of November 602; his wife scape-goat in this affair, she left her dwelling,
Leontia was likewise crowned. After he had together with her three daughters, and followed
momentarily quenched his thirst for revenge and him to the church of St. Sophia. At her aspect
murder in the blood of Mauricius, of his five sons, the people were moved with pity. They took up
and of his most eminent adherents, such as Con- arms, and a terrible riot ensued. But for the bad
stantine Lardys, Comentiolus and others, he will of John, the leader of the Greens, who paid
bought anl ignoble peace from the Avars, but was for his conduct by being burnt alive by the mob,
prevented from enjoying it by a fierce attack of the outbreak would have been crowned with
the Persian king Chosroes. This prince con- success. As it was, however, Phocas had the
sidered the accession of a despicable murderer to upper hand. The riot was quelled; Scholasticus
the Byzantine throne as a fair opportunity of was put to death; and Germanus was forced to
avenging himself for the many defeats he had suf- take the monastic habit: he had managed things
fered from Mauritius; and he was still more so cleverly that no evidence could be produced
urged to take up arms by Narses, a faithful against him: else he would have paid for the plot
adherent of the late emperor, and then commander- with his life. The empress Constantine found a
in-chief on the Persian frontier. Anxious to protector in the person of the patriarch Cyriacus,
escape the fate of so many of his friends, Narses and her life was spared; but she was confined in a
made overtures to Chosroes, left the head-quarters monastery with her three daughters. The general
of his army, and remained in a sort of neutral hatred against Phocas, however, was so great that
position at Hierapolis. Thus awar broke out with Constantina braved the dangers of another conPersia which lasted twenty-four years, the first spiracy which broke out in 607, and in which she
eighteen of which presented an uninterrupted series interested several of the principal personages of the
of misfortunes to the Romans, and which was de- empire: she still believed that her son Constantine
cidedly the most disastrous that was ever carried was alive. A woman contrived this plot, and a
on between the two empires. Asia Minor from woman frustrated it. This was Petronea who,
the Euphrates to the very shores of the Bosporus being in the entire confidence of the empress, was
was laid waste by the Persians; a great number employed by her as a messenger between the
of its populous and flourishing cities was laid in different parties, and who sold the secret to Phocas
ashes; and hundreds of thousands of its inha- as soon as she had gathered sufficient evidence
bitants were carried off into slavery beyond the against its leaders. The tyrant quelled the plot
Tigris. Bnt for this war Asia Minor would have by bloody, but decisive measures. Constantina
better withstood the attacks of the Arabs, who and her three daughters had their heads cut off at
some years later achieved what the Persians had Chalcedon, on the same spot where her husband
begun. Afraid to lose his crown if he absented and her five sons had suffered death. Among
himself from Constantinople, and feeling, as it those of her chief adherents who paid for their
seems, the inferiority of his military capacities, rashness with their lives were Georgius, governor
Phocas remained in his capital to enjoy executions of Cappadocia; Romanuts, advocatus curiae; Theoand beastly pleasures, while the eunuch Leontius dorus, praefectus Orientis; J.annes, primnus e